It's fun to be addicted to Internet backgammon

Hi. My name is Al and I’m a backgammon addict. Whew. I feel better already. I know I’m among friends. So let’s get down to business.

If you have a computer or other electronic device that runs Microsoft Windows, you undoubtedly have a number of games available to you. One of them is probably Internet Backgammon by Microsoft Corporation. This game matches you with real people to play backgammon.

You can thank Bill Gates for this. I don’t know whether he plays backgammon, but he’s the guy who started Microsoft, and so he’s ultimately responsible for everything that’s sprung from it, the good and the bad (how would you like to have that hanging over your head?), although these days he spends most of his time giving his money away.

You don’t know who your opponents are or where they are. They can be of any sex or ethnic makeup, any religion or political persuasion, and located anywhere on earth. Soon we may be able to play against opponents on other planets or perhaps in other solar systems.

I am going to refer to a backgammon opponent randomly as “he” or “she,” because I absolutely refuse to use “they” for a single person of unknown sex.

I started playing Internet Backgammon when I got tired of playing against half-assed computer backgammon games that had major flaws in them. Playing human beings is different because I play against people with different levels of ability. That’s much more interesting than playing the computer, which always plays the same way.

Microsoft has its own computer backgammon program that takes over if your human opponent quits because you’re being too mean to him, or his wife tells him for the tenth time to take out the trash.

The Microsoft computer backgammon program is awful. I’ve never lost to it. However, playing it gives you good experience in playing a wide open, take-all-prisoners style of game. (See “Playing the Microsoft Computer Backgammon Program.”) Computerized backgammon games have been created that will supposedly beat the best human backgammon players. Microsoft, with all its computer experience, apparently hasn’t been able to create such a game, or even come within a light year of it.

In writing this book I’m making certain assumptions. I assume you already know the rules of backgammon, or at least have them in front of you. I’m not going to repeat them here. I assume you have a backgammon board and can follow my examples on this board, so that I don’t have to clutter up the book with endless pictures of backgammon boards, which, after all, don’t have much artistic value.

I am including a Glossary, because to understand each other we have to speak the same language.

I don’t claim to be a backgammon expert. I’ve never played for money. However, I win most of my matches against computer opponents, and I can teach you to do the same. And as I said, I’ve never lost to the Microsoft computer backgammon program.

Remember, it’s more fun to win than to lose. So grab your backgammon board and a set of rules and turn to the chapter on “Opening Moves.”